The long-legged myotis is a hardy, high-country bat that leaves only a faint trail in the records. Open occurrence databases hold just 10 records for it in Arizona, 6 of them iNaturalist photos, a thin file for a fast, high-flying bat that rarely gives a camera a clear shot.
A flier of the mountain forests
Long, dense fur and a strong, direct flight suit this bat to cool conifer forest at elevation, where it chases moths well above the ground and roosts in tree hollows, under bark, in rock cracks, and in buildings. Its few Arizona records lean toward that montane habitat: 5 come from Cochise County, one of them in the Chiricahua Wilderness, and the rest are scattered across Mohave, Apache, Pima, and Gila counties. It ranks among the more cold-tolerant western bats and stays active later into the season than many.
The seasonal signal
Every record falls between May and July, too thin a file to show any seasonal curve. In winter the bat retreats into hibernation and torpor at sheltered sites, so a cold-season gap would mean dormancy, not real absence. NatureServe ranks it S3, vulnerable, in the state, a figure shaped by sparse survey coverage of remote forest as much as by any measured decline.
Common questions
How is it separated from other myotis? Mostly in the hand: long legs and feet, long fur, and a keeled calcar set it apart from Arizona’s other small brown bats.
Full species profile
